Translations

A shawl (Persian شال, Shāl,
from Sanskrit: śāṭī) is
a simple item of clothing, loosely worn over the
shoulders, upper body and arms, sometimes also over the head. It is
usually a rectangular or square
piece of cloth, often
folded to make a triangle, but can also be triangular in shape to begin
with. Other shapes include oblong shawls.

The first shawls, or "shals", were part of
traditional Persian costume in
AchaemenidPersia, worn
by both males and females. Shawls were also part of the traditional
male costume in Kashmir, which was
probably introduced via assimilation to Persian
culture. They were woven in extremely fine woollen twill, some
were even said to be so fine as to fit
through a ring. They could be in one colour only, woven in
different colours (called tilikar), ornately woven or embroidered (called
ameli).

Shawls are used in order to keep warm, to
complement a costume, and for symbolic reasons. One famous type of
shawl is the tallit, worn
by Jewish
men during prayers and ceremonies.

Silk shawls with fringes, made in China, were
available by the first decade of the nineteenth century. Ones with
embroidery and
fringes were available in Europe and the Americas by 1820. These
were called China crepe shawls, China shawls, and in Spain "mantones
de Manila" because they were shipped to Spain from China via
the port of Manila. The importance of these shawls in fashionable
women's wardrobes declined between 1865 and 1870 in Western
culture. However, they became part of folk dress in a number of
places including Germany, the Near East, various parts of Latin
America, and Spain where they became a part of gypsy dress
especially in Andalusia and
Madrid.
These embroidered shawls were revived in the 1920s under the name
Spanish shawls, a named derived from their use as part of the dress
of Spanish Gypsies, also known as gitanas. Their use as part of
the costume of the lead in the opera Carmen contributed
to the association of the shawls with Spain rather than
China.

Some cultures incorporate shawls of various types
into their national
folk dress, mainly because shawls were much more commonly used
in earlier times.

Today, shawls are worn for added warmth (and
fashion) at outdoor or indoor evening affairs where the temperature
is warm enough for men in wool suits but
not for women in dresses and where a
jacket might be inappropriate.

The shawls made in Kashmir occupy a pre-eminent
place among textile products; and it is to them and to their
imitations from Western looms that specific importance attaches.
The Kashmir shawl is characterized by the elaboration of its
design, in which the "cone" pattern is a prominent feature, and by
the glowing harmony, brilliance, depth, and enduring qualities of
its colours. The basis of these excellences is found in the very
fine, soft, short, flossy under-wool, called pashm or pashmina,
found on the shawl-goat, a variety of Capra hircus inhabiting the
elevated regions of Tibet. There are several varieties of pashm,
but the finest is a strict monopoly of the maharaja of Kashmir.
Inferior pashm and Kirman wool a fine soft Persian sheep's wool -
are used for shawl weaving at Amritsar and other places in the
Punjab, where colonies of Kashmiri weavers are established. Of
shawls, apart from shape and pattern, there are only two principal
classes: (I) loomwoven shawls called tiliwalla, tilikar or kani kar
- sometimes woven in one piece, but more often in small segments
which are. sewn together with such precision that the sewing is
quite imperceptible; and (2) embroidered shawls--amlikar - in which
over a ground of plain pashmina is worked by needle a minute and
elaborate pattern.